Horror: The Bram Stoker Award 2023
All the best in chills, thrills, and things that go bump in the nights. These are all the best horror to make your night a little more frightening.
Never whistle at night : an Indigenous dark fiction anthology
Author(s):
Description:
"A bold, clever, and sublimely sinister collection of horror, fantasy, science fiction, and gritty crime by both new and established Indigenous authors that dares to ask the question: "Are you ready to be un-settled?" Many Indigenous people believe that one should never whistle at night. This belief ranges far and wide and takes many forms; for instance, Native Hawaiians believe it summons the Hukai'po, the spirits of ancient warriors, and Native Mexicans say it calls a Lechuza, a witch that can transform into an owl and snatch the foolish whistlers in the dark. But what all these legends hold in common is the certainty that whistling at night can cause evil spirits to appear--and even follow you home" --
Format:
Book
Call Number:
FIC Nev
Out there screaming : an anthology of new Black horror
Author(s):
Description:
"A cop begins seeing huge, blinking eyes where the headlights of cars should be that tell him who to pull over. Two freedom riders take a bus ride that leaves them stranded on a lonely road in Alabama where several unsettling somethings await them. A young girl dives into the depths of the Earth in search of the demon that killed her parents. These are just a few of the worlds of Out There Screaming, Jordan Peele's anthology of all-new horror stories by Black writers. Featuring an introduction by Peele and an all-star roster of beloved writers and new voices, Out There Screaming is a master class in horror, and-like his spine-chilling films-its stories prey on everything we think we know about our world . . . and redefine what it means to be afraid. Featuring stories by: Erin E. Adams, Violet Allen, Lesley Nneka Arimah, Maurice Broaddus, Chesya Burke, P. Djèlí Clark, Ezra Claytan Daniels, Tananarive Due, Nalo Hopkinson, N. K. Jemisin, Justin C. Key, L. D. Lewis, Nnedi Okorafor, Tochi Onyebuchi, Rebecca Roanhorse, Nicole D. Sconiers, Rion Amilcar Scott, Terence Taylor, and Cadwell Turnbull"--
Format:
Book
Call Number:
FIC Out
Spin a black yarn : novellas
Author(s):
Description:
"Five novellas of horror and speculative fiction. A sister insists to her little brother that "Half the House Is Haunted" by a strange presence. But is it the house that's haunted--or their childhoods? In "Argyle," a dying man confesses to homicides he never committed, and he reveals long-kept secrets far more sinister than murder. A tourist takes the ultimate trip to outer space in "The Jupiter Drop," but the real journey is into his own dark past. In "Doug and Judy Buy the House Washer," a trendy married couple buys the latest home gadget only to find themselves trapped by their possessions, their history, and each other. And in "Egorov," a wealthy old cretin murders a young man, not knowing the victim was a triplet. The two surviving brothers stage a savage faux-haunting--playing the ghost of their slain brother--with the aim of driving the old murderer mad" --
Format:
Book
Call Number:
FIC Mal
The spite house
Author(s):
Description:
"Eric Ross is on the run from a mysterious past with his two daughters in tow. Having left his wife, his house, his whole life behind in Maryland, he's desperate for money--it's not easy to find steady, safe work when you can't provide references, you can't stay in one place for long, and you're paranoid that your past is creeping back up on you. When he comes across the strange ad for the Masson House in Degener, Texas, Eric thinks they may have finally caught a lucky break. The Masson property, notorious for being one of the most haunted places in Texas, needs a caretaker of sorts. The owner is looking for proof of paranormal activity. All they need to do is stay in the house and keep a detailed record of everything that happens there. Provided the house's horrors don't drive them all mad, like the caretakers before them. The job calls to Eric, not just because there's a huge payout if they can make it through, but because he wants to explore the secrets of the spite house. If it is indeed haunted, maybe it'll help him understand the uncanny power that clings to his family, driving them from town to town, making them afraid to stop running"--
Format:
Book
Call Number:
FIC Com
Everything the darkness eats : a novel
Author(s):
Description:
"After a recent string of disappearances in a small Connecticut town, a grieving widower with a grim secret is drawn into a dangerous ritual of dark magic by a powerful and mysterious older gentleman named Heart Crowley. Meanwhile, a member of local law enforcement tasked with uncovering the culprit responsible for the bizarre disappearances soon begins to learn of a current of unbridled hatred simmering beneath the guise of the town's idyllic community--a hatred that will eventually burst and forever change the lives of those who once found peace in the quiet town of Henley's Edge" --Amazon.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
FIC LaR
Maeve Fly
Author(s):
Description:
"By day, Maeve Fly works at the happiest place in the world as every child's favorite ice princess. By the neon night glow of the Sunset Strip, Maeve haunts the dive bars with a drink in one hand and a book in the other, imitating her misanthropic literary heroes. But when Gideon Green -- her best friend's brother -- moves to town, he awakens something dangerous within her, and the world she knows suddenly shifts beneath her feet. Untethered, Maeve ditches her discontented act and tries on a new persona. A bolder, bloodier one, inspired by the pages of American Psycho. Step aside Patrick Bateman, it's Maeve's turn with the knife" --Dust jacket flap.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
FIC Lee
Edenville : a novel
Author(s):
Description:
After publishing his debut novel, The Shattered Man, to disappointing sales and reviews, Campbell P. Marion is struggling to find inspiration for a follow-up. When Edenville College invites him to join as a writer-in-residence, he's convinced that his bad luck has finally taken a turn. His girlfriend Quinn isn't so sure--she grew up near Edenville and has good reasons for not wanting to move back. Cam disregards her skepticism and accepts the job, with Quinn reluctantly following along. But there's something wrong in Edenville. Despite the charming old ladies milling about Main Street and picturesque sunflowers dotting the sidewalks, poison lurks beneath the surface. As a series of strange and ominous events escalate among Edenville and its residents, Cam and Quinn find themselves entangled in a dark and disturbing history. Told with equal parts horror and humor, Edenville explores the urban legends that fuel our nightmares and the ways in which ambition can overshadow our best instincts.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
FIC Reb
Carmilla : the first vampire
Author(s):
Description:
"At the height of the Lunar New Year in 1990s New York City, an idealistic social worker turns detective when she discovers young, homeless LGBTQ+ women are being murdered and no one, especially the police, seems to care. A series of clues points her to Carmilla's, a mysterious nightclub in the heart of her neighborhood, Chinatown. There she falls for the next likely target, landing her at the center of a real-life horror story--and face-to-face with illusions about herself, her life, and her hidden past. Inspired by the gothic novel that started a genre and layered with dark Chinese folklore, this queer, feminist murder mystery is a tale of identity, obsession and fateful family secrets" --
Format:
Book
Call Number:
FIC Chu
Tombs : Junji Ito story collection
Author(s):
Itō, Junji, 1963-
Allen, Jocelyne,
Description:
"Countless tombstones stand in rows throughout a small community, forming a bizarre tableau. What fate awaits a brother and sister after a traffic accident in this town of the dead? In another tale, a girl falls silent, her tongue transformed into a slug. Can a friend save her? Then, when a young man moves to a new town, he finds the house next door has only a single window. What does his grotesque neighbor want, calling out to him every evening from that lone window?" --Provided by publisher.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
FIC Ito
The salt grows heavy
Author(s):
Description:
"You may think you know how the fairytale goes: a mermaid comes to shore and weds the prince. But what the fables forget is that mermaids have teeth. And now, her daughters have devoured the kingdom and burned it to ashes. On the run, the mermaid is joined by a mysterious plague doctor with a darkness of their own. Deep in the eerie, snow-crusted forest, the pair stumble upon a village of ageless children who thirst for blood, and the three "saints" who control them. The mermaid and her doctor must embrace the cruelest parts of their true nature if they hope to survive" --
Format:
Book
Call Number:
FIC Kha
The black guy dies first : black horror cinema from fodder to Oscar
Author(s):
Means Coleman, Robin R., 1969-
Harris, Mark H.,
Description:
Explores the Black journey in modern horror cinema. This eye-opening book delves into the themes, tropes, and traits that have come to characterize Black roles in horror since 1968, a year in which race made national headlines in iconic moments from the enactment of the 1968 Civil Rights Act and Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination in April.--
Format:
Book
Call Number:
791.4361 Mea
101 horror books to read before you're murdered
Author(s):
Hartmann, Sadie
Fontanili, Marco,
Description:
"Curious readers and fans of monsters and the macabre, get ready to bulk up your TBR piles! Sadie "Mother Horror" Hartmann has curated the best selection of modern horror books, including plenty of deep cuts. Indulge your heart's darkest desires to be terrified, unsettled, disgusted, and heartbroken with stories that span everything from paranormal hauntings and creepy death cults to small-town terrors and apocalyptic disasters. Each recommendation includes a full synopsis as well as a quick overview of the book's themes, style, and tone so you can narrow down your next read at a glance"--
Format:
Book
Call Number:
016 Har
Monster Camp
Author(s):
Description:
When eleven-year old Sylvie joins a monster LARPing (a.k.a. live action role-play) summer camp, she finds herself in the performance of her life after realizing that she is the only human among real monsters.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
J FIC Hen
Felice and the wailing woman
Author(s):
Description:
"The twelve-year-old daughter of La Llorona vows to free her mother and reverse the curses that have plagued the magical town of Tres Leches"--
Format:
Book
Call Number:
J FIC Lop
The nighthouse keeper
Author(s):
Senf, Lora
Cáceres, Alfredo,
Description:
When Evie Von Rathe discovers that the ghosts in Blight Harbor are disappearing, she teams up with a young ghost named Lark and ventures into the Dark Sun Side, where she unravels a personal mystery and battles with shadow creatures to reach the Nighthouse and release the trapped souls.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
J FIC Sen
Frances and the werewolves of the Black Forest
Author(s):
Description:
Frances Stenzel dreams of being a great scientists, even though her first big experiment nearly destroyed both her town and those dreams. When a prestigious society invites her to their symposium, Frances sees it as a chance to redeem herself. On the way there, her train is hijacked, and she and her friend Luca flee into the Black Forest. Seeking shelter with a group of orphans, Frances learns the rules of the woods: Never travel alone. Never make a sound. Because something hunts in the shadows; something with glowing eyes and sharp teeth. Frances is no stranger to monsters, but she quickly learns there are forces more terrifying than she ever imagined...and that the key to defeating them might lie in her own scientific discoveries. With Luca and the orphans at her side, Frances must again face the horrifying, this time determined to stop evil and make a name for herself, once and for all.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
J FIC Tum
The reformatory : a novel
Author(s):
Description:
"Gracetown, Florida. June 1950. Twelve-year-old Robbie Stephens, Jr., is sentenced to six months at the Gracetown School for Boys, a reformatory, for kicking the son of the largest landowner in town in defense of his older sister, Gloria. So begins Robbie's journey further into the terrors of the Jim Crow South and the very real horror of the school they call The Reformatory. Robbie has a talent for seeing ghosts, or haints. But what was once a comfort to him after the loss of his mother has become a window to the truth of what happens at the reformatory. Boys forced to work to remediate their so-called crimes have gone missing, but the haints Robbie sees hint at worse things. Through his friends Redbone and Blue, Robbie is learning not just the rules but how to survive. Meanwhile, Gloria is rallying every family member and connection in Florida to find a way to get Robbie out before it's too late" --
Format:
Book
Call Number:
FIC Due
Don't Fear the Reaper
Author(s):
Description:
Being published February 7th, 2023.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
Lone women : a novel
Author(s):
Description:
"Adelaide Henry carries an enormous steamer trunk with her wherever she goes. It's locked at all times. Because when the trunk is opened, people around her start to disappear. The year is 1915, and Adelaide is in trouble. Her secret sin killed her parents, and forced her to flee her hometown of Redondo, California, in a hellfire rush, ready to make her way to Montana as a homesteader. Dragging the trunk with her at every stop, she will be one of the "lone women" taking advantage of the government's offer of free land for those who can cultivate it--except that Adelaide isn't alone. And the secret she's tried so desperately to lock away might be the only thing keeping her alive" 8/21
Format:
Large Print
Call Number:
LP FIC LaV
Black River orchard : a novel
Author(s):
Description:
It's autumn in the town of Harrow, but something else is changing in the town besides the season. Because in that town there is an orchard, and in that orchard, seven most unusual trees. And from those trees grows a new sort of apple: Strange, beautiful, with skin so red it's nearly black. Take a bite of one of these apples and you will desire only to devour another. And another. You will become stronger. More vital. More yourself, you will believe. But then your appetite for the apples and their peculiar gifts will keep growing--and become darker. This is what happens when the townsfolk discover the secret of the orchard. Soon it seems that everyone is consumed by an obsession with the magic of the apples... and what's the harm, if it is making them all happier, more confident, more powerful? Even if buried in the orchard is something else besides the seeds of this extraordinary tree: a bloody history whose roots reach back to the very origins of the town. But now the leaves are falling. The days grow darker. And a stranger has come to town, a stranger who knows Harrow's secrets. Because it's harvest time, and the town will soon reap what it has sown.
Format:
DVD
Call Number:
FIC Wen
Funeral songs for dying girls
Author(s):
Description:
Winifred has lived in the apartment above the cemetery office with her father, who works in the crematorium, all her life, close to her mother's grave. With her sixteenth birthday only days away, Winifred has settled into a lazy summer schedule, lugging her obese Chihuahua around the grounds in a squeaky red wagon to visit the neglected gravesides and nursing a serious crush on her best friend, Jack. Her habit of wandering the graveyard at all hours has started a rumor that Winterson Cemetery might be haunted. It's welcome news since the crematorium is on the verge of closure and her father's job is being outsourced. Now that the ghost tours have started, Winifred just might be able to save her father's job and the only home she's ever known, not to mention being able to stay close to where her mother is buried. All she has to do is get help from her con-artist cousin to keep up the ruse and somehow manage to stop her father from believing his wife has returned from the grave. But when Phil, an actual ghost of a teen girl who lived and died in the ravine next to the cemetery, starts showing up, Winifred begins to question everything she believes about life, love and death. Especially love.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
YA FIC Dim
Find him where you left him dead
Author(s):
Description:
Four years ago, five kids started a game. Not all of them survived. Now, at the end of their senior year of high school, the survivors--Owen, Madeline, Emerson, and Dax--have reunited for one strange and terrible reason: they've been summoned by the ghost of Ian, the friend they left for dead. Together they return to the place where their friendship ended with one goal: find Ian and bring him home. So they restart the deadly game they never finished--an innocent card-matching challenge called Meido. A game without instructions. As soon as they begin, they're dragged out of their reality and into an eerie hellscape of Japanese underworlds, more horrifying than even the darkest folktales that Owen's grandmother told him. There, they meet Shinigami, an old wise woman who explains the rules: They have one night to complete seven challenges or they'll all be stuck in this world forever. Once inseparable, the survivors now can't stand each other, but the challenges demand they work together, think quickly, and make sacrifices--blood, clothes, secrets, memories, and worse. And once again, not everyone will make it out alive.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
YA FIC Sim
Harvest house
Author(s):
Description:
"Deftly leading readers to the literary crossroads of contemporary realism and haunting mystery, Cynthia Leitich Smith revisits the world of her American Indian Youth Literature Award winner Hearts Unbroken. Halloween is near, and Hughie Wolfe is volunteering at a new rural attraction: Harvest House. He's excited to take part in the fun, spooky show--until he learns that an actor playing the vengeful spirit of an "Indian maiden," a ghost inspired by local legend, will headline. Folklore aside, unusual things have been happening at night at the crossroads near Harvest House. A creepy man is stalking teenage girls and young women, particularly Indigenous women; dogs are fretful and on edge; and wild animals are behaving strangely. While Hughie weighs how and when to speak up about the bigoted legend, he and his friends begin to investigate the crossroads and whether it might be haunted after all. As Moon rises on All Hallow's Eve, will they be able to protect themselves and their community?" --
Format:
Book
Call Number:
YA FIC Smi
Camp Damascus
Author(s):
Description:
"Welcome to Neverton, Montana: home to a God-fearing community with a heart of gold. Nestled high up in the mountains is Camp Damascus, the self-proclaimed 'most effective' gay conversion camp in the country. Here, a life free from sin awaits. But the secret behind that success is anything but holy. And they'll scare you straight to hell"--
Format:
Book
Call Number:
FIC Tin
She is a haunting
Author(s):
Description:
When Jade Nguyen arrives in Vietnam for a visit with her estranged father, she has one goal: survive five weeks pretending to be a happy family in the French colonial house Ba is restoring. She's always lied to fit in, so if she's straight enough, Vietnamese enough, American enough, she can get out with the college money he promised. But the house has other plans. Night after night, Jade wakes up paralyzed. The walls exude a thrumming sound, while bugs leave their legs and feelers in places they don't belong. She finds curious traces of her ancestors in the gardens they once tended. And at night Jade can't ignore the ghost of the beautiful bride who leaves her cryptic warnings: Don't eat. Neither Ba nor her sweet sister Lily believe that there is anything strange happening. With help from a delinquent girl, Jade will prove this house--the home her family has always wanted--will not rest until it destroys them.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
YA FIC Tra